[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 30862] Dynamically inserted subresources aren't revalidated even when the containing document is reloaded

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30862





--- Comment #37 from Brady Eidson <beidson at apple.com>  2011-02-03 09:02:50 PST ---
(In reply to comment #36)
> Thanks for the time you've taken to reason through this issue, since it's such a hassle for users at the moment. Just to be clear: developers themselves (for which a developer extension might help) are not the problem, its the end users who are frustrated by this.

There are no end users complaining loudly in this bug, only developers.

If this bug actually affects the live delivery of a site to an end user, and the end user sees the issue, they will (correctly) not blame the browser, but rather the developer.

If a developer's particular configuration is susceptible to this issue on their live site, relying on one particular browser's special behavior seems ill-adviced, as they can always use appropriate HTTP headers when delivering their resources - Headers that will intentionally bypass long standing caching rules as they desire.

> The shift-refresh suggestion aside, in terms of a feature developers can opt-into, what about the other suggestion here? If application developers could 1) detect that the main resource was refreshed and 2) force revalidation when performing a lazy-load of a resource, I think that we'd have a suitable solution that developers can work with. They could easily decide to revalidate resources they later request on a case by case basis this way. Perhaps by toggling on a revalidation mode, requesting the resources, and then toggling it off (unless there's a per-request flag that can be passed somehow).

Fact #1 - HTTP caching is supposed to be invisible to the end user of the web platform.
Fact #2 - We all know that it actually isn't - in practice - and this bug is just one of many manifestations of this.

I think doing what you propose will take us FARTHER from the ideal of #1, not closer.

On a slight tangent, one oft-underlooked feature of the ApplicationCache is atomic updating of websites - all or nothing.  No stale resources.  We've heard of a lot of developers relying on this with great success...

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